Sleight of Hand
by Nonsensical Pratter
Summary: Due to an unseen error in his judgment, a teenage Slade must navigate life with his estranged daughter Rose, a budding romance with a young man named Dick Grayson, and a diabolical Granny whose only goal is to make him miserable. Can he embrace this life


**Nonsensical Pratter**

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_Notes: I don't own it ._

_I wish I did but I'm glad the people who own it, own it. If I owned it, Little Children wouldn't be able to watch it. :) Bad thoughts on that one. _

_This is going to be a slash story. As in Slade/Robin (Is it really important which goes first?) . I found out that I uploaded the wrong first Chapter (Insert Epic Fail) I finally came back and read the dang thing. Huge Error. Sorry to Everyone. _

_**(!NOTE THE ABOVE WAS A WARNING! PAY ATTENTION!)**_

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_I'm sorry to everyone who likes to get replies back but I don't have time to. I'm really sorry. I have been helping a friend reply to her mail and it's wonderful but it's so much work! Be happy that if I'm not replying, I'm writing. Ciao._

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**Chapter 1: Every Year.**

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Every Christmas, It was the same sad story.

It always happened in the second week of December, and yes, it was always his fault, no matter how hard he convinced himself that it wasn't.

He would get up early to Check his daily schedule, realize how late it was in the year and make his yearly call to Rose.

There would be stumbling, a lot of it, as he usually was in the middle of something important and life altering when he fell asleep. Some robot pieces would scatter since those miserable Titans would have destroyed whatever new creation he had devised last week.

He had been planning as he always did, late into the night.

And he would always crash into his work table. He would groan as the table moved a few feet to the left as it _always did_ which only strengthened the horror of the day. _That day._ The most annoying day in the whole Goddamn year.

It was December 13 and he had a call to make. This was hard since he couldn't find the phone.

When he finally found it, three feet away from the work bench he had just pried his tired body from, he yanked the phone from its charger and ran his fingers quickly across the pad. He put it to his ear and eased the mask from his face, so his voice wouldn't be distorted.

"Yes?" A calm voice called out. "Who is this?"

"Who do you think it is?" Slade muttered. "Put Rose on the phone." Wintergreen scoffed. Slade rubbed at his face, tired and attempting the wake the sleeping flesh beneath his mouth. He rolled his tongue against his teeth. He was hungry.

"You are almost late, you know. She is very mad at you." Slade could hear Rose moving toward the phone, big heavy footsteps from her boots. He winced. She was about the train after breakfast. He was running later than usual. He laughed to hid his discomfort.

"Like I Care. If she wants me to come over for Christmas, you had better-"

"Daddy." Rose said with a sigh. She sounded very tired, almost as tired as he felt. Slade could hear Wintergreen moving around in the background and could hear him sealing the door with a loud click. _Coward_. He would have words with him later about his attitude to his old master.

"He's seems to be in foul mood today."

"I'm in a foul mood today." He didn't see it but he could imagine her pursing her lips at him through the phone, already annoyed at him. Slade didn't feel like arguing with her.

"How have you been?"

"The same now as since last time you called here," She took a deep huff of agitation, "In this house or just a few blocks into the city." Slade knew how she was. She was under constant surveillance. And the cameras in the city only strengthened what she was telling him. She hadn't been far from the house in the entire two years he told her to stay there. Wintergreen of course was a big snitch and reported any of her outside activities to him when ordered to. But Slade knew Wintergreen had a soft spot for Rose, ever since she had been small, so he had to keep his options open, and his gaze wide.

"That's good to know."

"Have you left the Lair lately?" She asked. Rose was pulling back a chair, it's legs scraping the ground with a high pitch whine. "It's snowing now."

"I know, I had to enforce the Slade bots to withstand the new weather. Snow clogs them down if it's not dealt with properly." Rose slapped herself.

"You know what I mean? Can't you stop playing with those kids and take a walk or something?" She popped something in mouth that made a squirting noise. Slade huffed at that. Cherry Tomato. "You spend more time fighting the titans than anything else now."

"There was that thing with brother blood and there is that factory I'm running in Gotham. "

"Yeah but those are last year things. This year has been nothing but Titans, right?"

Slade shifted the phone to his other shoulder, preparing to argue with her about his lifestyle when he realized quite horribly.

That She was right. Rose_ for all her whining_, was right.

January through November had been nothing but Teen Titans. Nothing but he and his bird. Robin for this past year had become relentless in his pursuit for the villain and he never was one to back down from a fight. Slade and he met almost once a week every month of the year and no ground had been gained. Not truly. The Titans would win the bigger battles but Slade would still conquer all the smaller ones. It was like a contest with no tiebreaker.

Both were destined to fail.

Slade tried to remember a day that didn't end in a late night over a take-out meal and Slade bot parts or hazardous chemicals. He couldn't recall any. None that were true days. He had moments where he snuck out to take a breather but those were only hours, minutes.

Seconds.

Rose's silent understanding was the most terrible sounding earful of anything he heard. He snorted into the phone and heard Rose rearrange her cell-phone, no doubt hanging between her neck and shoulder .

"I'm right, aren't I," She murmured, "about this game you are playing with them?"

Slade knew his silence was all the confirmation she needed. She sighed again and it made her sound old instead of tired.

"So when are you coming?" Rose pushed the chair in and Slade heard the door open as Wintergreen came back in with a very audible click.

"As soon as I can." He muttered. "What do you want for Christmas?"

"What do you want for Christmas?" Rose said back, "Are we only giving and getting one present a piece?"

"Two if you count Wintergreen."

"Don't count me in, if you please sir." Wintergreen called out from some small corner of the house. Slade darkly chuckled at that.

"I guess it's gonna be just me and you, right?" Rose inhaled deeply and Slade knew she was thinking of her brothers. So was he.

"Just us." She whispered. It was a sad sound like wind slipping into a house with an open window.

"You won't tell me what you want? What I let you choose between two things?" He heard Rose scoff.

"What two things?"

"Some pink Underwear or a machine gun." He said with the utmost serious expression. Slade knew that Rose would roll her eyes.

"If I get one, do you get the other?"

"I don't think so."

"Neither. Surprise me like you when I was little. It's going to be a surprise this year for you, no tricking it out of me and no peeking. This year will be different from last. I guarantee it with what I got you." Slade had to smile at the image of Rose preening like peacock. She thought herself clever.

"You think I don't know what you go me?" Slade was sure to have taped her with it somewhere.

"Yep. And I didn't get it so don't bother badgering me." Slade narrowed his eyes. "Wintergreen did." He groaned.

"This will be the most miserable year yet." He muttered. Rose laughed at him.

"Better get me something good."

"I'll see you at 3:00 tomorrow."

"I'll be sending Wintergreen to fetch you," She didn't want to pick him up herself.

"Have him fetch me at the mall, I have pair of pink thongs to return." Rose went silent before he heard her snort into the phone.

"Liar, you'd never buy something like that."

"And If I did?" Rose would be shaking her head at him, laughing softly and Wintergreen would be the one to close the cell phone for her. The Distance was more pronounced now with the shutting of that phone than the slamming of her door. The space between him and his remaining child was very shriveled but could still be salvaged. If he only gave it the time and dedication it deserved.

Slade sighed. He finally hung up the phone and gently lifted the machine gun from a side panel in the wall. Staring at it in a thoughtful manner, he murmured, "I could definitely use this."

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Evey Dog has his day but Robin was sure that his wasn't this one or his last one. He was more stuck to the quote: Dog-Tired.

Robin was exhausted of running back and forth from Jump city to Gotham.

Although he loved the admiration and he greatly enjoyed the infamy of the streets that his name bestowed on him, he was still just a teen.

And he was tired.

Like bone tired. Like his skin felt it would slide off and lay at his feet kind of tired. Every Muscle ached, every joint made popping sounds, fatigue raced up and down his arms all the way to his shaking fingers and back to his shuddering shoulders. He was in a bad way.

After dealing with Slade bots at the beginning of December, he was forced to rush off to defend Gotham from Poison Ivy's Savage Spruces . He still had needles jammed into his precious bike from that mess and several of the older buildings were demolished as well. Then Harley was terrorizing the malls that refused to change their Christmas colors to the Joker's Green and Purple. Joker, in Arkham Asylum, found this to be hilarious and convinced everyone in the ward to make a giant bomb float for the Christmas parade. He escaped when the float went off prematurely but was caught with Harley when both attempted to rob a small drugstore in order to make laughing gas. Once he and Batman were satisfied that the Gotham Malls wouldn't turn into the Mardi Gras of Death and that the criminally insane were more or less intact, Robin was then demanded back to Jump City to take on Red X who was working with Slade Bots to steal some High Maintenance Biotech Ray Gun that the Government only called in hushed tones, "The Decimater,"

And decimate it did.

Buildings turned to rubble, flesh to ash, water to dust, and metal rusted to nothing but flakes on the wind. Red X seemed to be unstoppable until, thanks to a bit of tinkering from cyborg and a mouse sized beast boy, a Slade bot malfunctioned into the Decimater from behind. Red X was flung into an alley and fled for the rooftops.

The Decimater was returned to the government officials who so easily let it slip from their hands and the Titans were greeted with thanks and applause from the citizens of Jump. Another day saved. Another evil thwarted!

Just like last time.

And the time before that that.

And the time before . . . .wait. . . . . the time before that other time.

Raven looked over at him and gave a small wave before glancing back at the wreckage that used to be a table, wincing, then back at her book. Beast Boy and Cyborg were talking very animatedly about. . . . . . Something. Probably involving the pizza the two boys had both ruined.

Starfire, on the other hand, was staring at Robin, a concerned expression her face. She moved slowly toward him but Beast Boy pulled her into his argument with Cyborg, something along the lines of "poor Anchovies". She gave him a quick glance before giving into Beast Boys prodding and giving him her input over the Horrid "Death of a Pizza."

Later, he could still feel Starfire's eyes, leaving holes that left no scars on his body, the worst kind of attack she could give. She almost seemed to be looking through him now. Robin lowered his eyes and turned his head, folding his body away from them. Away from her exploring gaze and thoughtful expression.

Robin sighed, as he looked over his precious city. "I hope this year is better."

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_Too bad those silly children don't guard their hearts as well as they used to._


End file.
